Titanoboa
13 m (42.65 ft)
Estimated body length
A giant snake from the swamps of Paleocene Colombia, laid out straight. An estimated 13 m long and over a tonne, from its fossil vertebrae.
Published
How big is that?
13 m is 7.4 times an adult man and 48% of a blue whale.
Titanoboa is the 5th largest of the 31 Prehistoric Giants objects, and the 53rd smallest of the 109 objects across all three SizeItUp games.
Closest in size from the other games: Shipping container (40 ft) (Classic), 12.192 m long and Hubble Space Telescope (Cosmic Scale), 13.2 m long.
Size comparison
To scale, smallest to largest: Titanoboa in orange beside the Prehistoric Giants objects nearest in size, in teal.
| Object | Size | vs Titanoboa |
|---|---|---|
| Quetzalcoatlus (Wings spread)A giant pterosaur, one of the largest flying animals ever. | 10.5 m wingtip to wingtip | 81% of the size |
| Tyrannosaurus rex (SUE, Field Museum)SUE, one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons. Measured snout to tail. | 12.34 m long | 95% of the size |
| Titanoboa | 13 m long | – |
| Giraffatitan (Berlin skeleton)A long-necked sauropod from Jurassic Tanzania, mounted with its head held high. | 13.27 m tall | about the same |
| SpinosaurusThe sail-backed river hunter of Cretaceous North Africa, measured nose to tail. | 14 m long | 1.1× bigger |
In other units
| Centimetres | 1,300 |
|---|---|
| Metres | 13 |
| Inches | 511.8 |
| Feet | 42.65 |
| Yards | 14.22 |
How it's measured
Estimated body length. Head et al. 2009, from vertebrae.
Known only from partial remains, so the size is an estimate and published figures vary.
Body length runs from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail, following the spine.
Sources
- pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: Nature 457: 715: we estimate a body length of 13 m and a mass of 1,135 kg.
Checked against the source on .
Could you have guessed it by eye?
Titanoboa is one of the objects in Prehistoric Giants, a daily size comparison game: you stretch a shape to the size you think is right beside one you know.